New Aquarium

[kyleflahardy]

I have a 20 gal aquarium. For Christmas I am getting my brother a little 10 gallon aquarium. I have already gone out and bought live rock, a heater, and a power head then made salt water and set it up in a tub. It will sit in there for about a week. I was wondering if when he sets it up if I can give him some of my healthy, already developed, water out of my tank to help his tank be healthier and speed up the process of water maturity in the new tank. It cant hurt or interfere with the bacteria thats just beginning to grow in his tank? Do you think this will be okay to do?

 

[jason.kennedy.98478]

I would just buy some ofnthe commercially avaliable bacteria to speed thing up or add a few pounds of established rock from yuor tank into his and put the new rock in your tank. Assuming you got all base rock, if you got good live rock some bacteria and about 9 days is all you will need. Adding some of the water from your tank won't do much

 

[xellos88]

The bacteria live on hard surfaces (rock/sand) so adding water from your tank won't do much.

Previous poster is right. You can use commercially available bacteria like seachem stability to speed up the cycling process.

 

[tcampbell23]

In theory it sounds like a good plan but, the majority of the beneficial bacteria in a reef tank actually colonize the sand and the live rock. Seeding his tank with live rock from your tank would prove to be far more helpful than water. That doesn't mean that his tank would get the green light to be fully stocked but, it does mean he will experience a smaller cycle if he experiences one at all.

However, I can say that nothing good happens fast in this hobby and patience is a key.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

there is bacteria in the water. but live rock and tank water would be ideal. its a skip cycle. you just need need someting to process the ammonia. the rock does that. but the water is conditioned by being in the old tank and it makes it easy for the fish to jump right in.
that how you set up an emergency tank in 14 min. Its best to let the dust settle and run the HOB filer a while but the rock and water to the heavy lifting.

a clean bag of new live sand and some established rock and water and BOOM! new reef. still go slow. except in emergencies.